Fundamental question: Acquire land as a reserve?

Is it even sensible to buy another plot of land in advance when you don’t yet know if and when you might build on it?

That can be answered very simply: Having is better than needing. If the money is there, it is as sensible as a second Ferrari, a yacht, a second wife, or a 1000-euro Bordeaux (meaning wine, for the uninitiated).

However, I can’t judge how it appears to others, [...]

It is fun to follow your statements... This could turn into a popcorn thread :P.

As a freelancer in the artistic-creative field, I am extremely dependent on what other people think of me. [...] But probably only freelancers can understand that...

Okay, interesting. Of course, everyone is attached to their origins, but taken to the extreme, it is rather incomprehensible to the average Joe.

Most people look for a plot when they need it and then choose one from the available supply. Everything else follows. If location is that immensely important, then the timing of the purchase must be priority 2 (after location). Money is then only a marginal condition. In other words: As soon as you have found the suitable plot, you buy it. Immediately and without knowing when(!) you will need it.

I have never heard anyone say "Matthias is an excellent pianist, one of the greatest of our time, but he just lives in Spandau, you can never book him like that", but thankfully I am not involved in the Berlin scene. Since those who say the above sentence wouldn't book you only because they are afraid of what "people think", you are at least very similar in character :)

I only play the piano privately and otherwise make films. And you have no idea what you have to pay attention to in terms of outward appearance. In the same vein is, for example, the question of what kind of car you drive, but that's just a side note...

I will keep my eyes open and strike when the opportunity arises. It can hardly be a mistake in the Berlin suburbs.

How big is the risk that one will be told at some point that the property is no longer buildable? I once knew someone who bought a plot in a 34 zoning area many years ago. Residential buildings on both neighboring plots. And then years later he was denied the building permit on the grounds that the property was considered "forest." However, I did not follow how the legal situation proceeded.

Matthias

Then you just have to look not only at your image before buying but also at the land use plan. But you are not by any chance from Zuckmayer’s famous play about a certain captain, are you?

Land use plans can also be changed sometimes. My grandparents bought a plot of land in the 1930s, which they claimed until the end was building land at that time. Unfortunately, they never developed it. Today it is designated as part of a green area in the land use plan and is treated by the planning authority as an "unplanned outer area," i.e., according to § 35. As a result, it is practically impossible to ever build there. Unfortunately, I can't think of anything else meaningful that could be done with this property. Not to mention any financial return...

So from that perspective: It can also be a risk to buy land if you do not develop it for years.

Matthias

Now I have registered here because I have been reading along for some time and now want to add my two cents: From my point of view, the original asker posed an absolutely reasonable question and is making absolutely sensible considerations, so I don’t understand why some people here have to make a bit of a joke out of it.

My situation is very similar: About 15 years ago I made (from today’s perspective) a big mistake by building a house in a southern Berlin suburb next to my parents’ house on their property. My thinking back then was: I am a composer and mainly do film scoring, so I need my own small recording studio, which I can of course realize better in my own house than in a rented apartment. What I didn’t think about at all (due to lack of experience) was: How will this be perceived by women? The original asker hasn’t said anything about his family situation, so there has been no mention of women and children, which leads me to assume that he is single and has a similar problem to mine: Women tell me that I live way too far out and that they would never move somewhere where their in-laws live right next door. Women are already so savvy today that they ask very quickly (usually even before the first date) about my living situation – and then you’re immediately out.

Therefore: The question of how a particular living arrangement affects other people is absolutely important and was not sufficiently considered by me back then, so now I probably have to live with the consequences.

I, too, would now rather live somewhere in the green suburbs, because the noise in Berlin bothers me more and more as well, but I probably have no chance to implement that somehow because my money is tied up in the existing house and I can’t sell it since it stands on my parents’ property. And I also see the risk that my chances with women won’t increase if I move even further out. You also have to consider what impact this has on further family life. What about things like daycare, school, and the woman’s workplace if I ever find one? I can actually work from anywhere, I could even live in a lighthouse on Rügen since I have neither public nor client traffic. But if I really want to have a family, then I have to think about the others too. And only proximity to the city center counts there. Unfortunately.

So from that perspective: I really see no reason for any snide remarks. Be happy that things worked out better for you family-wise, but don’t point fingers at those for whom this is not the case and who are trying to change their situation.

Sebastian